Peel police on hunt for prisoner after courthouse escape

Peel police looking at ways to change their release procedures after a prisoner escapes by using another prisoner’s name.

Yul Delano Styles-Lyons escaped from the Brampton courthouse on Friday after taking the name of another prisoner. He is considered armed and dangerous.

By:Curtis RushPolice Reporter, Published on Tue Apr 12 2011

Peel police are still looking for a wily prisoner who slipped through their fingers in a caper worthy of a Matt Damon movie.

“We don’t feel embarrassed, but we regret that it happened,” Peel spokesperson Const. George Tudos said.

On Friday, Yul Delano Styles-Lyons and his cellmate Damian Mills were brought from prison to the A. Grenville and William Davis Courthouse in Brampton. In court, he assumed Mills’ identity and was released.

It was only on Monday, three days after their deception, that police notified the public. Police say the delay was due to the fact “we didn’t know what we had at the time,” according to Tudos.

A Canada-wide warrant has been issued for Styles-Lyons and police are urging him to contact a lawyer and make arrangements to turn himself in.

He is considered armed and dangerous.

Styles-Lyons was arrested for weapons and drug-related offences in February and held in custody at the Maplehurst Correctional facility in Milton.

Sometime before being escorted to court Friday, Styles-Lyons hatched his plan with Mills, 28, of Brampton, police allege.

“We’re not commenting on the relationship between the two because that’s something that will come up in court,” Tudos said.

Styles-Lyons would take the name of Mills, who was facing a charge of assault. Police don’t know, or won’t explain, what was in it for Mills. He has been charged with assisting an escape.

After Styles-Lyons pulled his swindle, his handcuffs were moved and he was released to his cell at the courthouse to collect his belongings and sign out. He then walked to freedom.

Later in court, the real Damian Mills announced his presence and police realized they had been duped.

Police say Mills and Styles-Lyons are both black and have similar features.

Mills is scheduled to appear in May 25 on the new charge.

The Ontario Attorney General’s office directed all questions to the Peel police.

Brendan Crawley, spokesman for the Ontario Attorney General’s office, said Peel is responsible for court security as are all police services in larger municipalities. In smaller or rural municipalities, where there is no municipal police service, the OPP is responsible.

“This was an isolated case,” Tudos said. “I’ve never seen an incident happen like this before.

“We are reviewing the process in which they manipulated the court system to see if there are any improvements we can implement down the road,” he said.

However, the switcheroo is an old bit of artifice dusted off from the 1990s, when it was successfully performed twice in Toronto courts — within a month of each other.

In March 1990, Shabadeen Shafikh, 27, walked away from the cells at court on University Ave. after posing as a prisoner who had been granted probation. The man who was to be released on probation was sleeping at the time.

Police said the escaped prisoner signed a probation order and was released. They said at the time they were considering getting picture identification.

The month before, another prisoner escaped by impersonating a fellow prisoner. He, too, answered personal questions to officers at the door. Police later found him in a doughnut shop.

Those lapses in 1990 led police to implement picture identification to lessen the risk that these capers would happen again.

“I wouldn’t say it’s impossible to happen in Toronto, but mug shots are available now to our court staff who are charged with releasing these people,” said Acting Supt. Roy Whittle of Court Services. “Pictures mitigate the risk.”